This historical critique of high-stakes testing in reading focuses on selected events from three historical movements: 1) the history of standardized testing, 2) the history of standardized reading tests, and 3) the history of high-stakes testing. These three interrelated histories have produced the high-stakes, standardized reading tests used in…

Much of what has developed in the testing of reading harkens back to the days of the "Cult of Efficiency" movement in education that can be largely attributed to Frederick Winslow Taylor. Taylor spent most of his productive years studying time and motion in an attempt to streamline industrial production so that people could work as…

One hundred fifty-one urban ninth grade students participated in an investigation of the effect of differentiated content in two congruent tests of reading. A congruent test was constructed by substituting information relevant to junior high school students within the parameters of a nonrelevant, standardized state test of reading. By maintaining…

Arguing that educational testing has not grown with the theory and knowledge base of the reading field, this paper cites the current configuration of testing as a major contributor to the instructional stagnation, methodological back-to-basics movement, and general lack of excitement and true innovation found in classrooms and schools today. The…

This study was designed to examine the extent to which Illinois Goal Assessment Program (IGAP) constructing meaning scores correlate with Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) reading scores and with performance on ITBS items dealing with literal meaning, inferences, and generalizations. In addition, this study assessed the ability of the IGAP reading…